The vampire story as we know it was born in the early 19th century, as the wicked love child of rural folklore and urban decadence. But in writing these depraved tales, Byron and Polidori and company were refining the raw ore of peasant superstition. And the peasant brain had simply been doing what the human … Read more
If you’re one of the millions of Americans who use broadband Internet at home, you probably take for granted how deeply it’s woven into your life. It has transformed the way we pay our bills, seek romance, procrastinate, and keep abreast of politics and the lives of friends. The pre-Google era has become a distant, … Read more
Essay by Michael Betancourt. The collapse of the United States’ “Housing Bubble” in 2008 is the logical and inevitable result of the illusion of production without consumption; however, in spite of the financial collapse, and the bailouts of insolvent financial institutions and the on-going disinflation, credit and value collapse, the institutions receiving bailouts became stronger … Read more
The word processor is a stupid and grossly inefficient tool for preparing text for communication with others. That is the claim I shall defend below. It will probably strike you as bizarre at first sight. If I am against word processors, what do I propose: that we write in longhand, or use a mechanical typewriter? … Read more
On June 10, 2010 we caught up with Gustavo Martinez, a union leader in the worker-controlled, nationalized coffee company, Fama de América, in Caracas, Venezuela. The company has 350 workers at the national level, with two separate plants – one in Caracas and one in Valencia. We sat down with Martínez to discuss the centrality … Read more